January

In January we took Flat Stanley on a couple excursions.  Carly's friend Madison from Texas sent us her Flat Stanley so that we could show him a good California time. 

We went to the Sequoia National Park and saw some white tail bucks.

 Jarod looks cute in his beanie. 

 This is one of my favorite pictures with the kids. 

 We took Stanley to The Monterrey Bay Aquarium. 

 Pablo Neruda is one of Jarod's favorite poets.  We hadn't ever noticed his quote on the wall at the aquarium. 

 Jarod wished for trips to Grandma's house. 

 Carly chopped off all her beautiful hair. 

 It's still beautiful!

December

December is always a fun month, filled with holiday traditions and anticipation.

 We went on a temple trip with the ward to Los Angeles.

 We put Carly's hair in curlers.

 Isn't she cute?!

 Jarod perfected the art of sitting up!

 The boys practiced their mad eye-crossing skills.

 We attended the Christmas party for the Branch. 

 Josh had a Christmas program at school.  He did such a good job singing!

 Mama and Papa came to visit for Christmas.  We spent the duration of their stay taking turns with the stomach flu.  We know how to show our guests a good time!

Jarod had his first solid food.  He really enjoyed the rice cereal!

 Christmas morning is always fun with the kids. 

 Who is that?!

 The kids all got some great presents.  Among those were Carly's rollerblades.  She's quite the natural athlete, taking to skating like it was walking!

November

In November Carly and Josh had Native American celebrations at school. 

 Carly made Native American head bands and outfits, learned about the many uses of corn, and did buffalo hunting. 

 Josh had a pow wow where the kids all sang their Native American songs, and ate friendship mix.  Such cute little Indians!

October

In an effort to catch up on a much neglected blog, without omitting details of our fun adventures over the last 9 months, I've decided to give a monthly rundown of the fun that we've had. 

In October we:



Carved Pumpkins

 Flames, batman, and a witch are represented.

Jack had a birthday, shout HOORAY! He turned 4 years old. 

 We went on a trip with our friends to the pumpkin patch. 

 We painted pumpkins with our friends. 

 We dressed up for Halloween.  Batman, Ironman, a Mexican maiden, and a monkey. 

 Our baby monkey. 

 Jack had a birthday party at the park.  We had bowling, bean bag toss, and other games. 

 He was a cute birthday boy, and we had great fun with our friends!

 Jarod did some great tummy time. 

 Josh was a stud. 

 Baby Jarod worked on sitting up.  

 He's so cute!



Cookie Cutters

Jarod loves to have something in the oven on Sunday afternoons. After making a rainbow cake, angel food cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin bread this week, I let him have a turn in the kitchen. He and the kids settled on sugar cookies, and the rest of our evening was spent in cutting out and decorating them. What a fun way to spend the Sabbath!

Pumpkin Patch

The kindergarten classes took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. I showed up late, because I was sick that day and had debated going at all. I couldn't resist the opportunity to see my baby boy on his field trip, though. Jack is such a ham.

I have some good looking boys. The other night Josh was telling me all about pumpkins. He's such a joy.

My kids are so lucky to have their cousins in their classes. That's his cute cousin Ava he's protecting in the line for the bus.

I always wished I'd known my cousins better growing up. We were the only ones living in Texas, while almost everyone else lived in Utah. I'm glad they all get along so well, and I hope they continue to enjoy this time they have to be close.